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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26215066">In All The World</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovesFrogs/pseuds/LovesFrogs'>LovesFrogs</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Force Bond (Star Wars), Gen, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, That's Not How The Force Works, The Force, but I didn't intend it that way, you could read this as obi-wan/anakin if you wanted</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:15:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,562</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26215066</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovesFrogs/pseuds/LovesFrogs</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Something dark and creeping has been invading Anakin's psyche for years by the ending stretches of the Clone Wars. When Obi-Wan realizes this there is a chance to overcome the dark path his apprentice has been set on.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Obi-Wan Kenobi &amp; Anakin Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>197</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>In All The World</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title from The Little Prince: "He was just a fox like a hundred thousand others. But I’ve made him my friend, and now he’s the only fox in all the world."</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a milk run of a mission. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi knew it was meant as a poor excuse for leave when they assigned him, Anakin, and Ahsoka all to the same planet for two weeks on a mission that wouldn’t take them one. Some rogue squadron of battle droids had crashed on this otherwise peaceful farming planet and they’d been sent in for cleanup duty to avoid letting the locals be terrorized unnecessarily. The people were grateful, but poor, and the best lodging they could offer was a solid, mostly clean barn and two large piles of sweet grass. As all three of them were sick to death of bunking in their ship, they welcomed the change of scenery with open arms.</p>
<p>Anakin flopped down in the middle of a grassy heap that reached almost up to his shoulders, then sneezed violently when a cloud of dust floofed into the air around him. “Ack!” he choked. Obi-Wan hid his smirk behind a hand, and Ahsoka giggled. </p>
<p>“Oh yeah, laugh it up,” Anakin grumbled, wiping his nose on his sleeve with great dignity. “Do whatever you want, but I’m just going to crash right here and right now.” He flopped back down, though he did it much more gently this time, Obi-Wan noticed with a smile. He turned to Ahsoka.</p>
<p>“You go sleep over there. I’ve had to bunk with Anakin before and I have a bad feeling I’ll have to do it again,” he said.</p>
<p>She shrugged. “How can I say no to an offer like that?” Then took a running leap over to her own nest, loosing a cloud of dust and pollen even larger than her Master’s had been and causing both Obi-Wan and Anakin to burst into sneezing fits.</p>
<p>“Thank you, Ahsoka, that’s just what I needed tonight,” Obi-Wan said under his breath. </p>
<p>“My pleasure!” said Ahsoka.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan rolled his eyes as he clamored up beside Aankin, mentally reminding himself that it was unbefitting of a Jedi Master on the Council to get into a petty fight with a young knight and his padawan, no matter how obnoxious they might be. He shuffled around, wishing he’d thought to bring more comfortable sleeping clothes from the ship. The grass was prickly against his skin, and even with his outer robe as a pillow he felt like he was breathing in little bits of it through his nose. The light around them darkened, and he knew night had truly fallen outside. One of the planet’s three moons peeked out at him from a little vent in the corner that also served as something like a window. He moved again and Anakin poked him in the arm.</p>
<p>“Just go to sleep.”</p>
<p>“I’m trying,” Obi-Wan whispered back. He settled with his back to Anakin and sighed, hoping that his former padawan would drift off soon and let him be. It had been a long time since they’d been forced to share a bunk, and Obi-Wan was awkwardly aware that Anakin might be disturbed every time he moved. He didn’t think he would be able to sleep at all, but his body was exhausted from battle and constant strain, and eventually Obi-Wan’s swirling thoughts slowed enough for him to fall into an uneasy doze.</p>
<p>He was abruptly woken by something after what felt like the blink of an eye. Darkness shrouded every corner of the barn, and Obi-Wan could barely see his hand in front of his face. He blinked his sticky eyelids and blearily tried to determine what had disturbed him. It wasn’t difficult. Anakin had rolled over in his sleep and leaned against Obi-Wan’s back, or there was no way he would have felt it. Anakin was trembling faintly in his sleep, apparently suffering from some night terror or another. </p>
<p>Before he even had time to process Obi-Wan was putting a hand to Anakin’s huddled shoulders, intending to shake him awake, and he reached into the Force to calm him. Suddenly he tore his hand away and nearly rolled all the way off the grass heap they were laying on. A strong Dark Force bond was connected to Anakin, and by the feel of it had been there for some time. The cold, slimy feeling of the Dark side shuddered through Obi-Wan’s own mind in a sickening rush reminiscent of Maul and Ventress. Had one of them managed to hit Anakin with some kind of slow-acting, life draining sickness?</p>
<p>He closed his eyes in light meditation and reached out again, more gently this time. His and Anakin’s bond had begun on a sour note, but they had built it up into something stronger than a durasteel wall. Despite the council’s rules, they’d never bothered to sever it, useful as it was on the battlefield. What the other Masters didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. Obi-Wan followed the bond now, his mental self sliding down the bright string that connected his soul to his former padawan’s. Anakin’s Force signature was bright gold, the white light of the Force streaked through with darker yellows and oranges of care and compassion for others. There were a few thin lines of blue that Obi-Wan guessed stemmed from Anakin’s continued struggles with anger, but it was nothing too much to worry about. No one was perfect, after all.</p>
<p>No, the concerning thing was the black thread that tangled through everything, restricting the golden light and digging into the natural shadows of Anakin’s psyche. It bristled when he came close and another wave of nauseating cold swept through him. As he drew closer still, intending to get a better look, it seemed to constrict around Anakin’s light. Obi-Wan was drawn back to the real world when Anakin made a tiny noise and curled in on himself. For a moment he shivered much more violently than before.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan knew this type of connection could cause psychological pain when removed, but it obviously had to be done. He elected to keep Anakin asleep in the hopes that it would affect him less. As silently as possible, he slipped out of their bunk and made his way to the other end of the room.</p>
<p>“Ahsoka, wake up,” he hissed, reaching out to her with the Force in order to find her body and shake her awake.</p>
<p>“Master, what…?” she moved, then sat up. “It’s the middle of the night.”</p>
<p>“Ahsoka,” he said again. She stopped at his urgent tone. “Listen. Anakin is having a nightmare, and when I tried to wake him I realized he’s been targeted by some kind of parasitic Dark Force bond. We need to break it as soon as possible, and I’d prefer to let him sleep through the process if we can.”</p>
<p>Resilient as she was, it didn’t take long for Ahsoka to shake herself the rest of the way awake. She quickly grasped the seriousness and delicacy of the situation, and followed Obi-Wan back to Anakin. </p>
<p>“Shouldn’t we take him to a healer?” she whispered as they moved.</p>
<p>“We could,” Obi-Wan said, “but I’d rather not. If this gets back to the council… well, they don’t need any more reasons to be upset with Anakin, even if this is far from his fault. He seems to think I’m not aware, but the council doesn’t really appreciate his unique style of doing things, to put it delicately. The healers are my second option.”</p>
<p>Ahsoka nodded. She sprung lightly up beside her Master and placed a hand on his shoulder. Obi-Wan scrambled up again and noted worriedly that Anakin was trembling more violently than before.</p>
<p>Ahsoka spoke quietly. “What do we do?” Her eyes flashed with determination.</p>
<p>“I need you to anchor me,” said Obi-Wan. “It’s dangerous to go all the way into another person’s mind, and I have no intention of getting lost. If I don’t come back on my own by dawn I need you to pull me back as hard as you can. If that doesn’t work, contact the temple. They’ll need a mind healer to help us both out at that point. Can you do it?”</p>
<p>She gave a sharp nod. “You can count on me.”</p>
<p>“I know.” He took her hand in one of his and Anakin’s in the other, then closed his eyes again. Obi-Wan felt first for Ahsoka. Her cool light and subtle power reached toward him invitingly, and he did the mental equivalent of solidly grabbing her by the wrist, as though he were hanging from a cliff with only her hand to stop him from falling. She pulled back and they balanced together, unmoving. Without speaking, Obi-Wan projected a warning to her before he reached out again, falling down toward Anakin once more. He left a strong cord trailing behind him, like a harness that would pull him back from the abyss if he slipped, and lost himself in Anakin’s head.</p>
<p>Little had changed in the time he’d been gone. The black thread was interwoven around and through the blue streaks and darker shades of Anakin’s psyche, widening and deepening the shadows. As it spread up through the lighter parts it branched out like sticky lace, infecting everything it touched. A more cynical man than Obi-Wan might have thought Anakin already Fallen, especially when he located the place where their bond touched and found a string of the black trying to squirrel its way in even there. But he would never give up on Anakin.</p>
<p>When he touched the foreign blackness it almost audibly protested, shrinking back and constricting Anakin’s presence even more tightly. It sent shivers all the way to Obi-Wan’s core, but this darkness was designed for Anakin and did not cling to him in the same way it did to his friend. As soon as he separated a piece from the rest of the tree it dissolved into dust and nothingness. He knew somehow that Anakin was whimpering, but didn’t let the sound distract him this time.</p>
<p>Slowly, methodically, Obi-Wan began tearing out all the black he could see. He began with the place around their bond, where it was still thin and weak looking. It broke off in his metaphysical hands like delicate spun sugar, except that it felt cold as ice and left strange pale scars wherever it rested for too long. He kept going.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan didn’t know how long he worked. The thread was twisted and tied through everything. It was like unknotting the world’s most tangled piece of string, but the longer he took the longer Anakin was in pain. The cost of failure was the very man he was trying to save. The thread grew to the thickness of his fingers, sharpening at the ends into knifelike points and branching in all directions. He turned for just a moment and one scraped him, drawing blood.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan screamed. He saw flashes of battlefields, explosions and limbs that should still be attached to someone, and the fear in a blond boy’s eyes as he fell to his death at the bottom of a rocky waterfall. He felt the weight of Qui-Gon Jinn’s limp body and smelled something burning as an entire camp of Tusken Raiders perished in a night. A woman cried out, liquid fire flowed around him, and in a flash of lighting Obi-Wan ripped free.</p>
<p>He came back to himself, panting, as Ahsoka squeezed his hand. “Are you okay?” she said. “I felt something horrible and cold, and then you <i>screamed</i> in my head. I had to pull you out of there.”</p>
<p>He regained his breath, forcing it in and out at a regular pace. “Yes, I’m alright,” he said. “You did well. Whatever this darkness is that entraps Anakin, I suppose that’s what happens when it tries to attack someone else.”</p>
<p>“It tried to attack you?” Ahsoka leaned closer and shut her eyes. He felt her pushing at him with the Force and ruefully let her in to check him over. She pulled back after only a few minutes. “I don’t see anything left now,” she said. “But there are a few scars that weren’t there before, I think. You’ll both need to get checked out after this by a mind healer or I’ll tell the council on you.”</p>
<p>Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow, but she raised one right back. He broke and smiled, already feeling lighter. “You win, young one. I’ll get us both in when we have time next time we’re at the Temple. Fair?”</p>
<p>“Fine.” They shook on it.</p>
<p>“I’m going back in,” he said. “I’m about three quarters of the way through, but I started with the weaker parts. Same rules apply.”</p>
<p>She looked like she might protest, but glanced back at Anakin and nodded. “He’s hurting. Be careful.”</p>
<p>“I know. I always am,” said Obi-Wan. He needed to hurry. Anakin was closer to unconsciousness than just sleeping at this point, and his trembling was beginning to worry him. When Obi-Wan took his hand again it was cold to the touch, but a sheen of sweat had broken out across his forehead.</p>
<p>With that image in mind, Obi-Wan went about his task with new energy. He hacked and pulled at the black cords restraining Anakin’s soul, and the farther he got the more he could feel Anakin attempting to free himself as well. Important pieces of the web snapped and dissolved under his student’s power, leaving the way clear for Obi-Wan to get to the heart of the invasion and cut it off at the root. The final piece was at the very center, as thick as his arm with thorns poking out from it at random intervals. It stretched out from Anakin’s mind into the black space beyond, presumably connecting to whatever dark mind had been able to snare Anakin’s bright spirit so thoroughly. Obi-Wan centered himself, drawing strength from Ahsoka and from the great well of power that was Anakin all around him. Golden light flowed over and through him, and his hands glowed as though they’d been set on fire. With a final mighty crack he broke off the foundation of the darkness and watched as it fizzled away, back to whatever Master it came from.</p>
<p>Suddenly, with the defeat of the Dark bindings, Anakin’s feelings and… self were much more prevalent. Even as he tried to retreat, Obi-Wan felt a sense of welcome and relief that surrounded him in excited golden waves, even as little spots of apprehension dotted them like frightened fish in the sea. They drew in around him and some hesitant little affectionate feeling poked at him playfully. He sent a little fizzle of affection back and saw a ripple of joy spread out around him.</p>
<p>This was when the danger of getting lost was greatest, Obi-Wan knew. However, no one understood Anakin quite like he did, and if he was honest no one really knew Obi-Wan like Anakin did either. He saw the way he had twisted and turned all through Anakin’s psyche to cut out the darkness and sent out a mental request.</p>
<p>Amused acceptance bombarded him, and a clear path opened up to let Obi-Wan out of Anakin’s mind and back into his own, following the path that Ahsoka’s anchor gave him. In no time at all he was back on the grassy bed, holding two hands and feeling utterly exhausted.</p>
<p>“Did it work?” Ahsoka was staring at him, wide-eyed and worried. “He just went quiet all of a sudden.”</p>
<p>“It’s gone,” Obi-Was assured her, slumping a little. “We did it.”</p>
<p>“Good,” she said, and that was the last thing Obi-Wan heard before his eyes seemed to flutter shut of their own accord. The surface beneath him was soft enough and springy, and there was Anakin too. He let his head rest on Anakin’s stomach and went limp with a sigh, drifting off to sleep without another thought.<br/>.<br/>.<br/>.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan woke slowly. It began with just the faintest awareness of his mind stirring, brushing off the blanket of sleep and preparing for the day ahead. The next thing he noticed was the odd, scratchy texture of his bed, followed closely by the warm weight of something laying right in his personal space. With the smell of grass and the sound of deep, even breathing, he opened his eyes. His head was still in Anakin’s lap, and he quickly moved before the man woke up and decided to make fun of him. He was still sitting with his head in his hands, attempting to process everything that had happened, when Anakin shifted.</p>
<p>“Help,” said Anakin in a hoarse sleep voice. “Master, Obi-Wan, please, I’m trapped! I can’t--” he jackknifed up into a sitting position so fast that for a moment Obi-Wan worried about whiplash. Then he had no room to worry as Anakin caught one look at him and threw himself into his arms with a wordless cry, nearly sending them both tumbling down the grass to the floor.</p>
<p>Obi-Wan awkwardly brought his arms up and around him in a hug. Ahsoka had sat up across the room, and he tried to communicate with his eyes and the Force that she should make herself scarce right now. Luckily she got the message, slipping outside without a sound. “Anakin, it’s alright,” he said.</p>
<p>“No it’s not!” said Anakin, clinging to Obi-Wan’s robes desperately with his fists. “He--he trapped me in my head. Usually I’m free, but I can’t tell anyone and he’s been playing with my emotions. Back when I was guarding Padme before the war…” he shuddered. “I did something terrible and he buried my remorse so deep I just thought I was a monster for ages. And now I haven’t been able to say your name for months and I think he’s coming for Ahsoka next and I keep having these dreams that give me false hope, so I might as well--” He cut off in a horrible, wrenching sob. </p>
<p>“Shhhh,” Obi-Wan said, rubbing his hand up and down Anakin’s back the way he had when his padawan was still just a child. “I found it, Anakin, it’s gone. Whoever he is, he can’t hurt you now.” He did his best to hide his sheer horror that Anakin had been aware of the darkness but unable to escape for years. What kind of a Master was he, that he hadn’t found out about this sooner? </p>
<p>Anakin just clung tighter, enough that Obi-Wan wondered if his sides would bruise. “You’re so real,” Anakin murmured. “I’m sorry, Obi-Wan.”</p>
<p>“This is not a dream and there’s nothing to be sorry for, Padawan,” said Obi-Wan. He felt very out of his depth, but attempted to pat Anakin on the back a few times reassuringly.</p>
<p>Anakin laughed brokenly and curled up even tighter. “I love you,” he said. “I’m sorry. You’re like my own <i>vod,”</i></p>
<p>It was as if the ground had dropped out from beneath him. Obi-Wan was frozen, staring at the man he had raised and trained and taught for nearly all of his adult life. Anakin was tense, as if waiting for some kind of punishment, but the only thing that came out of Obi-Wan’s mouth was, “We’re not clones.”</p>
<p>“We don’t have to be clones to be brothers,” Anakin grumbled.</p>
<p>That was… true. Obi-Wan remembered the absolute trust his men had for each other, the way they taught and learned and grew and changed together, and came to the startling realization that Anakin was absolutely right. The two of them were like trees with roots that tangled together so thoroughly that to separate them would be to mortally wound both. Even the thought of going through the war without Anakin was abhorrent to Obi-Wan. He had never done well with loneliness, and Anakin and Ahsoka were some of the last bright spots left in his life. Losing either of them would tear his heart in two.</p>
<p>It was with this thought in mind that he leaned down and whispered the confession he should’ve admitted right away: “I love you too.”</p>
<p>Anakin went limp, and Obi-Wan could feel the shock and relief spreading through him. “You’ve never said that before.”</p>
<p>“Well it is rather against the rules, so I’d rather you didn’t tell on me,” Obi-Wan said. “This time it isn’t a dream, Anakin. Search your feelings, you know it’s true.”</p>
<p>Anakin stilled in his arms, eyes closed and grip softening. He was obviously measuring his breaths, in and out, as he connected with the Force. All of a sudden his eyes flew open and he jerked away, face beet red and eyes wide in something like fear. “Master, I--” He stopped. There didn’t seem to be anything else he could think to say and he just stared at Obi-Wan as if Obi-Wan would have all the answers.</p>
<p>He had absolutely none of the answers, but he really didn’t want to let Anakin know that. “You’re safe, dear one,” he said. Anakin only shook his head. </p>
<p>Obi-Wan leaned forward and set a heavy hand on his shoulder. Anakin took a shuddery breath. “He’s going to come after me again. I… I can’t beat him alone.”</p>
<p>Obi-Wan resolved to never let Anakin go without a mind scan for more than a week at a time for the next ten years. “Then it’s a good thing you won’t be alone this time, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>Slowly Anakin raised his eyes and smiled, a tiny, broken thing. “Yeah. Yeah, it is.”</p>
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